洛陽紙貴

　　Overwhelming Popularity of a New Work Causes Shortage of Printing Paper

　　In the Jin Dynasty （265-420） there was a famous writer whose name was Zuo Si who, however, was very naughty and did not like to study when he was a small kid.His father often got angry, and yet young Zuo Si was as naughty as ever and would not study hard.

　　One day, Zuo Si's father was chatting with his friends. his friends envied him his clever and loverly son. Hearing this, Zuo si's father sighed, "Please do not mention him. My son Zuo si does not study as well as I did when I was young, although I did not study well enough myself. It appears that he is actually a good-for-nothing." So saying, he looked disappointed. All this was witnessed by young Zuo Si. He felt very sad, feeling intensely that he would not be able to have a bright future if he did not study hard. So he was determined to study assiduously from then on. Day after day and year after year, Zuo Si gradually grew up. Because of his unremitting afforts in hard study, he became an erudite scholar and wrote very excellent essays. The "Ode to the Capital of the State of Qi", which took him one year to write, showed his brilliant literary talent and laid the foundation for his becoming an outstanding writer. then he planned to write an "Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han and Wu" with the local conditions and customs as well as the produce of the three capitals as its content. In order to achieve the desired effect in content, structure and language, he applied himself to research work with great concentration, and was so absorbed in creative writing as to forget food and sleep. It took him ten whole years to finish the writing of "Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han and Wu", a literary masterpiece.

　　The "Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han and Wu" was well received by the broad masses of readers after it made its appearance to the public, and people considered it as superbly written as the "Ode to the Western Capital （Changan） and to the Eastern Capital （Luoyang）" written by Ban Gu （32-92） and the "Ode to the Western Capital and to the Eastern Capital" written by Zhang Heng of the Han Dynasty （206 B.C. to A.D.220）。 As the art of printing had not been invented at that time, people who were fond of this "Ode" had to make handwritten copies of it themselves. As there were so many people who vied with each other in making handwritten copies, the supply of writing paper fell short of the demand in Luoyang went up greatly.

　　This story comes from "The life of Zuo Si" in the book "Literary Field" of The History of the Jin Dynasty. Based on this story, people have coined the set phrase "the price of writing paper went up greatly", meaning the overwhelming popularity of a new work causes shortage of printing paper, to show how popular an outstanding piece of literary work is.

　　晉代文學(xué)家左思，小時候是個非常頑皮、不愛讀書的孩子。父親經(jīng)常為這事發(fā)脾氣，可是小左思仍然淘氣得很，不肯好好學(xué)習(xí)。

　　有一天，左思的父親與朋友們聊天，朋友們羨慕他有個聰明可愛的兒子。左思的父親嘆口氣說：“快別提他了，小兒左思的學(xué)習(xí)，還不如我小時候，看來沒有多大的出息了。” 說著，臉上流露出失望的神色。這一切都被小左思看到聽到了，他非常難過，覺得自己不好好念書確實很沒出息。于是，暗暗下定決心，一定要刻苦學(xué)習(xí)。

　　日復(fù)一日，年復(fù)一年，左思漸漸長大了，由于他堅持不懈地發(fā)奮讀書，終于成為一位學(xué)識淵博的人，文章也寫得非常好。他用一年的時間寫成了《齊都賦》，顯示出他在文學(xué)方面的才華，為他成為杰出的文學(xué)家奠定了基礎(chǔ)。這以后他又計劃以三國時魏、蜀、吳首都的風(fēng)土、人情、物產(chǎn)為內(nèi)容，撰寫《三都賦》。為了在內(nèi)容、結(jié)構(gòu)、語言諸方面都達(dá)到一定水平，他潛心研究，精心撰寫，廢寢忘食，用了整整十年，文學(xué)巨著《三都賦》終于寫成了。

　　《三都賦》受到諒也評，人們把它和漢代文學(xué)杰作《兩都賦》相比。由于當(dāng)時還沒有發(fā)明印刷術(shù)，喜愛《三都賦》的人只能爭相抄閱，因為抄寫的人太多，京城洛陽的紙張供不應(yīng)求，一時間全城紙價大幅度上升。

　　故事出自《晉書·文苑·左思傳》。成語“洛陽紙貴”，稱頌杰出的作品風(fēng)行一進(jìn)。

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